My
Great-Aunt Emma Jane Wray (nee Pearson) left a will when she died in 1951.
Actually her original will was signed in 1946. She added two codicils, one in
1947 and another in 1949. She left property and sums of money to several nieces
and nephews as well as to some of their children.
I
think Emma had favourites among her siblings, nephews and nieces. She singled
out only a few of them for bequests, generally the younger ones and many of
them unmarried.
For
this time period, mid-20th century, it is often difficult to
specifically identify people. There is no census data. The 1939 Register has
names redacted if they are still possibly alive. BMD records can be confusing
especially when names are common. The will was very helpful in confirming some
people and even in adding some names to the family tree. I will describe how I
was able to sort out some of the people and their relationships in successive
posts rather than try to tell the whole story at once.
Emma
Jane was an older sister to my great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Pearson who
married James Shepheard in Devon, in 1890. Emma did not marry until 1916, at
the age of 55. She did not have any children so much of her family life appears
to have centred on her siblings and their children. I have a copy of a
wonderful coloured photograph taken of Emma and her new husband, Stephen Wray
that was given to my grandfather. He kept in touch with her for many years
after he immigrated to Canada in 1907. She also sent him letters and photos which
I have as well.
 |
| 1916 Wedding photo of Stephen Wray and Emma Jane Pearson |
Emma
was very community-minded. She turned to two friends, one a solicitor, to
manage the affairs of her estate. She was generous and supportive of
institutions important to her during her life. In her original will, Emma
provided funds for: the Vicar and Churchwardens to assist them in the
maintenance of the graves of her grandparents, parents and a brother buried in
the Leamington Spa Cemetery and of a chapel in the cemetery (£300); the churchwardens
of two churches for general expenses (£25 each); a convalescent Home for
Consumptives (£25; her sister, my great-grandmother had died of the same
disease); the local British Legion for the benefit of ex-servicemen (£25); a
Home for Incurables (£25); her doctor (£25) and a local minister (£25).
She
left personal cash bequests to only a few family members including:
- · niece Elsie Pearson, in the form of an annuity (£26/an)
- · nephew Alfred Pearson (£100)
- · nephew James Pearson Shepheard (£100)
- · nephew Charles Pearson (£25)
- · niece Evelyn Pearson (£100)
- · niece Annie Walton (£100)
The
residue of Emma’s estate was then to be divided among:
- · niece Annie Overton
- · Winifred, the widow of her late nephew Thomas
- · two daughters of her late nephew Thomas – Pamela and Joyce
Details
about the first group, shown in the original will are as follows:
Elsie
Pearson was Elsie Norris Pearson, a daughter of Emma’s brother, Henry Thomas
Pearson (or Thomas Henry as many documents have his forenames in a different
order). The address given for Elsie in the will, #16 Adelaide Square, Windsor,
was his family’s residence in 1911 and which also helped me find them on the
1939 Register on FindMyPast. I had to
just the address as the FMP database
had the surname spelled as Perrson. You cannot read Elsie’s name on the
register, though, because of an inkblot over most of it. The fact that funds
were set up as an annuity suggested she may have been institutionalized at some
point or incapacitated in some manner. That led me back to the 1911 census
where I found her living at the Royal Deaf &
Dumb Asylum,
Victoria Road, in Margate, Kent, with 349 other students. The story of this
school is very interesting and I will write about it in a later post.
Alfred
Pearson was undoubtedly Alfred Christopher Pearson, the son of Emma’s brother, James
and his wife, Isabella (Atkinson) Pearson. Isabella and her children had moved
to Rhyl, Wales, shortly after the death of her husband in 1897. James is the
sibling buried in Leamington Spa Cemetery whose monument Emma provided funds
for maintenance. Alfred was living at home in Rhyl, Wales, on both the 1901 and
1911 censuses. I also found him on the 1939 Register, still living in Rhyl,
then with a wife, Mary J. They were married in 1923.
James
Pearson Shepheard was my grandfather. He had always been a favourite of his aunt Emma
after his mother died when he was only an infant. He came to live with his
grandparents in Leamington Spa for a time where Emma likely saw him often. They
stayed in touch until her death, well after he had immigrated to Canada.
I
have not found nephew Charles Pearson. In an attempt to locate him on various
records I did several searches of the GRO Online Index. There are 518
names on the birth list between 1880 and 1904, the date range for the births of
most of Emma’s nieces and nephews. One of them could/should be him. I am
looking first to see if any of the mothers’ maiden names match up with those
who married any of Emma’s brothers. There a few possibilities but I have not
confirmed which one is the right Charles. What the will did tell me is that one
of her brothers did have a son of that name, so that is a start.
Evelyn
was probably another daughter of Henry Thomas. We can infer from her name in
the will that she was still unmarried in 1946. There are several women on the
1939 Register that could be her. Perhaps when I obtain a birth certificate and
learn her actual birth date, I may be able to narrow down which one is the most
likely to be my ancestor.
Annie
Walton would have been Annie Isabella (Pearson) Walton, a daughter of James and
Isabella (Atkinson) Pearson. She married Jack Walton in 1944. In a codicil
signed in 1949, Emma revoked the bequest to Annie. I wonder what the story was
for that change. The will did at least tell me that Annie had married and that
her husband’s name was Walton, so that helped to find the marriage date and
place. I have not yet confirmed her or Jack’s residence on the 1939 Register.
The
contents of the will led me to important documents and information about many
Pearson family members. As a result of additional searches I even found some others
who were not named as beneficiaries.
In
my next post I will describe some of the other information I discovered from an
analysis of Emma Jane’s will and codicils.
Wayne
Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling
four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number
of articles about various aspects of genealogy in several family history
society journals. He has also served as an editor of two such publications.
Wayne provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated
No comments:
Post a Comment